Today we started a unit on the global impact of industrialism. It is based on a unit written by Bob Rittner and Dan Berman, which I bought and downloaded from the National Center for History in the Schools. It's a simulation with a possible 9 countries and 6 social classes, all based on historical events and people. Each student takes on the role of a member of a social class in a particular country (in my case, we're doing Great Britain, India, and China because that fits our course objectives).
The unit is a 158 page PDF file, with a teacher manual, a student manual, scoring sheets, study aids, and a plethora of activities, including a research paper, presentations, video, audio... the list goes on. My only complaint is a technical one -- the PDF file is "secured", which means that I can't copy parts of it to other PDF files and make them available in digital format to my students (oh how I loathe photocopying). But that's a small quibble.
Anyway, kudos to Bob and Dan for a great learning activity. I'll post more as we go on, as will my students.
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Assignment 2
The character of Tom Fletcher, a wheat farmer living in Essex is a lower class worker who is struggling to find work and money in the changing economy. One other character that would have the most in common with Tom would be Lucy Luck. Both characters are lower class workers who are almost powerless to change anything about their situations in life. Tom is trying as hard as he can to change his position in life, but unfortunately Lucy has given up all hope of a better life. Tom Fletcher would also have a tremendous amount of respect for Beatriz Webb. Beatriz is an intellectual from the upper middle class who had fought for rights of the poor. Beatriz would have realized that Tom’s position in life was not his fault, and that he did everything he could to advance his status in life. Beatriz believed in the advancement of society, but she thought that industrialism and the mistreatment of workers was extremely unfair. One person who Tom would strongly disagree with would be Lord Salisbury. Salisbury believed that the upper class should have more rights than the lower class. The reason that Tom lost his career in farming was because of greed in the upper class. People like lord Salisbury wanted cheaper bread for the workers so they would be able to pay them less, and in turn the upper class would make more of a profit.Assignment #2
My character, Li Hsiu Ch'eng is a farmer turned commander of a rebellion. He ran a small farm which he worked very hard on, but heavy taxation on the lower class caused him to lose his farm. For that reason, he probably disliked the character Wang I-Chiang, who is a tax collector. After the loss of his farm, Li wanted to find a job at the port of Chanton, however the opening of new ports like the the one in Shanghai were drawing work away from the smaller ports. This is another reason Li would not have trusted Chiang, becuase Chiang builds ports and bridges as well as tax collecting. Li would have held the most respect for Liang Chi-Chao. Liang is supportive of the reform and associates with reform leaders, like Li. Liang also founded a newspaper that speaks out against the corrupt Confucian officials in the government.Post new comment